A Day at Conquest 2017 Grand Finale

Conquest is India’s largest student-run startup conclave, organized by the Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership (CEL) of BITS Pilani. Early this September, I happened to attend the Grand Finale of the 2017 Edition of Conquest. It was an absolute spectacle – an overwhelming mega fair of everything entrepreneurship. Attended by Venture Capitalists, Founders, Finalists, and Startup enthusiasts, the event was truly chicken soup for the entrepreneurial soul. With outstanding startup pitches by the finalists, intriguing panel discussions by the jury, a stimulating Fishbowl Q&A session and a fantastic keynote speech, everybody was pumped up to exchange ideas. The event, like typical such events, was a networking paradise. It offered tremendous opportunities for people to connect with each other, on a day when people who might appear to be the most unapproachable of the lot, were approachable.

I struck up conversations with people who are doing a remarkable job with their ventures. Their stories are inspiring.

Watch me here in a conversation with Pulkit Agrawal, co-founder and CEO at Trell, one of the ten finalists at the event. Trell is a local discovery platform which enables people to create visual collections of their travel and local experiences and share it.

I also happened to talk to Dhruv Mathur, co-founder at Little Black Book (LBB). LBB is one of the largest local recommendations platform in India and is hugely popular on social media channels. I talked to him particularly on how he has leveraged the power of social media so well to his venture’s advantage. He was one of the jury members at the event. Watch us in conversation here.

Startup events have a lot in store for the enthusiasts. If you find yourself passionate about business, these events can offer immense value for you. And if you happen to be working on your own venture, the value it can offer for you goes up big time. Attending these events is one of my highest recommendations for people starting out with a new venture. You might just land yourself a meeting with a venture capitalist to discuss your idea, or come across a fellow who is working in the same market space as you who shares how they overcame challenges you are currently facing, or you could get to know of newer provisions and opportunities in the startup space, or you might just find yourself a new team member. There are tremendous opportunities for one to market their business and themselves.

As a matter of fact, this topic entails quite a bit that can be discussed and hence I plan to talk about it in detail in a separate blog post sometime soon. I hope to take the conversation forward and talk about the various marketing avenues startup events offer, among other things. Stay tuned.